Adrian Michaels is Group Foreign Editor at the Telegraph Media Group. You can write to adrian.michaels@telegraph.co.uk and follow @adrianmichaels on Twitter.

Lessons from Germany on ill-planned coalitions

A complicated agreement on sharing government for five years can't be winged; and all the media impatience about the coalition negotiations in the UK was misguided. The talks dragged on for all of five days. If difficulties are not foreseen and ironed out in advance the government is more likely to be weak, maybe to fail, and that is in no one's interests. A strong majority government may result from a new election but the lingering death of a weak coalition could do incalculable damage to the UK's economy.

The clamouring for the dithering to end must surely have contributed to an agreement drawn up in haste. I suspect that everyone involved will come to regret that more time was not taken. We are not, after all, used to this. The last German election saw just three weeks of negotiation instead of the usual five or six weeks to form a coalition. David Cameron said just now that he solicited some advice from Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, on coalitions. I wonder if she told him what is true, that she regrets that German coalition matters were not discussed for at least another week. Partly this was because she had commitments at the United Nations and had to leave town.

The lack of clarity on a German economic programme contributed to the crucial regional election defeat for the coalition this weekend. Mrs Merkel has lost her majority in Germany's upper house. The electorate are angered over broken promises, Greece, and ambiguity over tax cuts, a problem that could have been resolved by clear messages months ago.

The Lib Dems in the UK can also learn from the ambiguous conduct of the FDP in Germany. It had been out of power for over a decade and was suddenly thrust into being the junior partner in a coalition with a party it had been criticising for years. Nick Clegg will need to tailor his rhetoric accordingly so as not to undermine the needed impression of strong government.

Mr Clegg will also have to curb his frustration – the FDP's leaders have had to learn that they may be in government but Mrs Merkel is in charge, and they will not necessarily have the power and profile they think they deserve. David Cameron is the UK's prime minister, and there can be only one of those.